Webmail: Filtering Email

Set a Filter Using Spam Headers to Filter Modify a Filter Delete a Filter Filter Rules & Order Blacklist Whitelist Help

You can set filters to move or delete messages with specified information. Webmail includes blacklist and whitelist services, which are kinds of filters. You can move or remove mail from a blacklisted address. Mail from an address on your whitelist is always accepted.

Setting a Filter

Create a filter by going to Options (for Mail) | (Other Options) Filters and selecting Edit your filter rules. The window that opens lets you add to your blacklist, whitelist, or create a new filter. From this screen you can set Webmail to display notification when each filter is applied (see below). If you are filtering messages to the Trash, set that option to review the subject line of filtered messages to determine if you want to retrieve any from the Trash.

To create a new filter, click New Rule.

webmail filter rules

Give the rule a name and set the other fields as desired. The image below shows a filter that will move all messages with a subject line containing "***SPAM" or "spam?#" to the mail folder Spam.

spam filter settings

You can select multiple and different fields to filter messages. For example, if you select Subject and Body with the text “Make Money”, messages that include that phrase in either the subject line or the body will be filtered according to the rule. Filters can include * and ? wildcards.

By default Webmail moves messages marked for deletion to the Trash, so messages you filter to delete are moved to the Trash. If the filter action you select is move, you select the folder you want messages moved to, either an existing folder or one you create when you create the filter.

After setting the filter rule definition, click the Save button. To apply the filters, click the Apply Filters button.

Taking Advantage of the New Spam Headers

CSS and ITS have implemented filters that add a tag to the subject line of incoming messages that are likely to be spam. Filters can be used to move these messages to any folder including the Trash folder, which is emptied every seven days. See the settings in the filter example above to create a filter that moves to the Trash folder messages marked as spam by the Engineering and ITS filters.

If you create a folder called "Spam" (must be a capital "S" and lowercase "pam", mail that has the subject line tagged as {*** SPAM ##} will be moved to the Spam folder automatically. Messages in the Spam folder are deleted every seven days, just like the Trash. Mail tagged by ITS as [spam?##] is not automatically filtered into the Spam folder. You must create a rule to filter such mail.

existing filter rules

Modify a Rule

To modify a filter rule, select the rule under Existing Rules by clicking the Edit icon (paper and pencil) to the left of the rule (see illustration above). The Filter Rule dialogue box opens. Make the desired changes in the rule and click Save.

Delete a Rule

To delete a filter rule, click the trash can icon to the left of the rule (see illustration above). Click OK to the dialogue box that asks, "Are you sure you want to delete this rule?"

Filter Rules and Order

Rules run in the order listed under Existing Rules. You could create rules that would affect the same message differently, so once rules are created, pay attention to the order in which they are processed. The rules are processed in ascending order, the rule at the top of the list first, and so on. To move a rule up or down the order list, click the move arrow to the right of the rule in the Move column (see illustration above). To immediately run the filters, click Apply Filters or click the browser’s back button to return to Filter Settings and Filter Options to set when filters run.

webmail filter rule options

Filters can run when you log in or when the INBOX is displayed.

Blacklist

You can blacklist messages coming from a specified sender. To blacklist an address, from the Inbox click the box in front of a message from that address, and then click Blacklist at the top of the column. The Blacklist rules box opens. You can set the rule to move or delete the message. When you blacklist an address, all future messages from that address will be deleted or moved to the specified folder. If you set "Delete message completely" you cannot read the message; it is deleted and not just moved to the Trash.

Spammers rarely use the same address each time, so blacklisting is unlikely to catch spam. It is better to use a filter to remove spam.

Whitelist

The Whitelist is email addresses for which you always want the mail delivered to your Inbox.

Help

For help with Webmail filters, blacklists, or whitelists, speak with the CSS user consultants, 1253 SC, 335-5055.

updated: 27 May 2006